I can’t remember ever traveling with a team this big. Our junior team rolled into West Yellowstone last night and the masters team members have been trickling in over the past two days. In total, we’ve got 12 CXC Team Vertical Limit athletes, 15 CXC Junior Team athletes, 20 CXC masters team athletes, and 7 CXC coaches. By the end of the week, this number will total 60 people staying with CXC at the West Yellowstone Ski Festival.
The two most important people in the whole group are Pete and his daughter from Sublime Subs in Hayward. They arrived with the Junior Team at 6:30 last night after the 18 hour drive from Hayward. By 7:30, they’d fixed us an awesome meal of honey-cured ham, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, fresh salad, and bars for dessert. It can’t be easy cooking for 60 people in a hotel kitchenette, but man they do a good job!
Nicole and Olivia serving up
Gus showing off his skillz while the rest of the team feasts
We had another great day of skiing. It snowed intermittently all day and the dustings are starting to add up. One of my goals this week is to narrow my fleet of skis. Ideally, I’d travel with six pairs of skis: three skate and three classic–one cold, one universal, and one warm ski for each discipline. Pat Casey, my National Team coach, and I spent the morning testing classic skis. Pat is my same height and weight and he’s a lot better and feeling skis than I am. By the time we race on Wednesday, I will have picked out my favorite pair in the bunch.
I caught up to several Masters Team skiers (it wasn’t too hard) and the end of my workout. Yuriy took this picture of Don Becker, Irina, and I. Don owns Becker Law in Madison and is a big supporter of CXC, especially the Adaptive Program, as well as a variety of other organizations. Irina is the mastermind behind all of the CXC video and graphic design, including the banner on this site. Thanks to both of them for their support!
Don, Irina, and Garrott